Mathematical education for geographers

Abstract

The mathematical topics which are of use to geography students are outlined, as are the methods used for teaching mathematical techniques in geography courses at Leeds over the last few years. The concluding section relates practice to goals, and the problems of providing the student with a framework into which he can fit all the pieces of knowledge he has acquired. Possible future developments are reviewed briefly in the light of the development of new mathematical techniques on the one hand, and criticisms of the existing state of the art on the other. The subject matter of the paper is limited to mathematical education, and there is only indirect and brief concern with statistics.     

Exploratory data analysis for geographers

Interactive data analysis – A practical primer, McNeil, Donald R. (1977) New York: Wiley, (0–471–02631–X), 186pp, £7.00

Exploratory data analysis, Tukey, John W. (1977) Reading, Mass: Addison – Wesley, (0–201–07616–0), 688pp, £14.40

Data analysis and regression – A second course in statistics, Mosteller, Frederick and Tukey, John W. (1977) Reading, Mass: Addison – Wesley, (0–201–04854–X), 588pp, £14.40     

Geolibraries: geographers, librarians and spatial collaboration

Geography, GIS and GIScience are closely aligned with the emergence of 'geolibraries'. Geolibraries are also coincident with the metaphor of 'Digital Earth'. The growth in these areas of research and practice can be traced to collaborations among multiple disciplines. Geography and library science stand out as interesting partners. At first glance it may seem that it would be difficult to find common ground for such collaboration. The reality is that the two communities have been closer for longer than most may think. Such collaboration does, however, face unique challenges in a Canadian context, and collaborations thus far have been more successful in the United States. This paper reviews issues at the intersection of GIS and libraries and offers suggestions for further spatial collaboration in Canada within the context of geolibraries and GIScience .     

天神崇拜:儒家的大自然敬畏思想

对自然物、自然现象的困惑、恐惧,以自身类比方法,远古人想象出了种种神灵,产生了多神崇拜.夏商周时代,多神崇拜演变为统一至上神即天神崇拜.春秋末期,孔子创立儒学,接纳了天神崇拜观念;西汉中叶之初,董仲舒代表的儒家集天神崇拜观念之大成,创立了系统的天神崇拜思想体系.天神崇拜实质上是自然力崇拜、大自然崇拜,它凸显了儒家对大自然的敬畏思想.     

Wake up,Russia! Political activism and the reanimation of agency

When protest movements do not achieve policy outcomes, they are often considered failures. But as I learned while working with feminist and pro‐LGBT activists in Moscow's radical left, becoming a political activist may in itself be an important form of resistance to overwhelming and demoralizing power structures. During the mass anti‐Putin protests of 2011–2012, which were widely experienced as an awakening of political subjectivities, to talk with activists about what constituted “politics” was to talk about the possibility of agency in the face of what often appears to be overwhelming constraint. Activism can thus be as much a form of subjectivity work as a means of changing public policy.     

A test for geographers: the geography of educational achievement in Toronto and Hamilton, 1997

The recent introduction of standardised achievement tests in several provinces has created an opportunity for Canadian geographers to contribute to public and theoretical debates. Geographers are well‐equipped to comprehend and analyse the effects that neighbourhoods have upon pupil achievement. Independent of family background and school funding, such effects may be stronger in education than in other fields, such as voting behaviour and health research, but they have been ignored in recent public debates. They should be considered if informed judgements are to be made about whether specific teachers, schools, and boards are doing an adequate job. Analysis of the Ontario Grade 3 test results for 1997 in public schools in the City of Toronto and in Hamilton‐Wentworth indicate that social class had a greater effect on pupil achievement than language background. Differences in the determinants of achievement between these two urban centres may be attributable to local variations in occupational structure and residential patterns. L'introduction récente en éducation des tests de compêtences standardisés, dans plusieurs provinces, offre aux géographes canadiens l'occasion de contribuer aux débats publics et théoriques. Les géographes sont bien placés pour comprendre et analyser les effets de quartier sur le rendement scolaire des élèves. Indépendamment du milieu socioculturel et du financement scolaire, ces effets ont peut être plus d'impact en éducation que dans les domaines tels que le comportement électoral et la recherche dans le milieu de la santé, cependant, ils demeurent à l'écart des débats publics. Ces éléments doivent être considérés si l'on prétend juger en connaissance de cause l'efficacité et le rendement des écoles, le corps enseignant et les conseils scolaires. L'analyse des résultats d'examens de l'Ontario en 1997, pour les élèves des écoles publiques de la troisième année des villes de Toronto et Hamilton‐Wentworth, démontre que la réussite scolaire est plus liée au niveau socio‐économique qu'à l'origine linguistique. La divergence des facteurs de réussites des deux centres urbains est peut‐être attribuable aux variations des structures d'occupation locales et résidentielles.     

Geography, geographers and the New Dictionary of National Biography

Work on a new edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is beginning at the University of Oxford with support from the British Academy and Oxford University Press. The new edition like the old will collate signed biographical memoirs of individuals to form the definitive biographical record of British life. The new edition will include the lives of many people, such as women, popular entertainers and people important outside the metropolis, who were inadequately covered in the original edition. In doing so it will help redefine the concepts of "the nation" and "national life." New technology for sorting and manipulating data will greatly enhance the usefulness of the New DNB. Geographers have much to contribute to the project and their assistance is sought.     

Now that's Controversial! Tracing the Influence of Policy Discourses on History Education Reform in the Balkans

In this article, I bring an ethnographic lens to untangling the influence of policy discourses on civil society-initiated projects of history education reform in the Balkans. Drawing on data from a multi-sited project conducted amongst historians, teachers, and NGO personnel, I ask: what are the dominant discourses that impact civil society-initiated efforts to promote history education reform, and how are these discourses made authoritative? How does policy act to organize the work of this cluster of actors, and what kinds of responses does it provoke? While educational policy discourses and their impacts are varied, I argue that such discourses can be profitably viewed as technologies of governance deployed in the service of post-national citizenship formation. In analysing behaviours of “complaisance”, how “competencies” emerge as a slippery signifier whose expansive meaning was exploited to multiple ends, and how the demands of post-national citizenship can, and sometimes do, detract from the goal of addressing controversial history, I map the field of possibilities in which my interlocutors found themselves, and highlight how they navigated their positions as mediators of particular, shifting, social worlds.     

A Nabataean and Roman shrine with civic and military gods at Humayma,Jordan

The lifecycle of a Nabataean and Roman community shrine at Humayma, Jordan reflects the evolving values of the town's inhabitants from the first to the third century CE. This paper reviews the evidence for the shrine's appearance and significance over this period, as well as the nature of the cult practised there. Beginning its existence as a Nabataean shrine, whose design incorporated the rising sun and the town's primary peak, the building was damaged when the Romans converted Nabataea into Provincia Arabia. The Roman garrison initially dismantled the shrine to build their fort, but a few decades later the shrine was restored with a centrally placed Nabataean betyl and legionary altar symbolising harmony between the garrison and the town. The garrison's god, Jupiter‐Ammon‐Serapis, and possibly Isis, were now worshipped alongside the town's Nabataean deity. This shrine stressing military‐civilian harmony was later deliberately damaged, most likely during Zenobia's revolt.     

Time,place, and the lifeworlds of feminist geographers: the US in the 1970s

The 1970s, the decade in which Susan Hanson took up an academic appointment in American geography, was a period of marked growth in women's representation and political activism in the discipline and of the emergence of feminist research and teaching. Susan's career illustrates the changes in consciousness, resiliency in the face of setbacks, and creativity of the times. Inspired by the women's movement, and exemplifying collegiality, women geographers identified masculine biases in scholarship and professional practices, initiated research and teaching on women and gender, and worked to enter the leadership of the Association of American geographers. Their efforts were the genesis of the feminism in the profession that has since flourished in the United States. It is fitting that Susan Hanson's leadership and contributions in this arena are widely recognized and honored.     

Preparation for teaching in a research degree: a model to prepare geographers for academic careers

This paper considers the possibility of overt political disagreement between human geographers and their students. Recent literature suggests that geographers should encourage their students to become more politically engaged through innovative teaching methods that could include frank discussion of the various positions taken by lecturers and students alike. Yet this same strategy could easily run against established pedagogical arguments about how teacher neutrality gives students the space to develop their views in whatever direction they choose. This paper investigates the practical management of this tension by drawing on qualitative interviews with a sample of current practitioners that centred on the occasions when personal politics have previously featured in their undergraduate teaching. It describes why overt political discussion is often squeezed out of these encounters, the careful ways in which these academics manage their political views during the times when such discussion occurs along with the degree to which they felt they should reveal them, and how students themselves commonly seemed to perform opinion in a relatively superficial way because doing so could be much less stressful. The conclusion that follows reflects on the broader implications of these findings for current debate and future practice in the discipline where it particularly emphasizes the importance of being sensitive to the interpersonal dynamics at hand.     

Three geographers in an archive: positions, predilections and passing comment on transient lives

Despite the existence of research conducted by geographers eschewing or professing religious faith, the influence of researchers and their methods have yet to receive critical attention within the study of religion. The experience of three geographers working on a three-year research project suggests that it is vital to reflect upon the inter-subjective relationships and methodologies used to reconstruct the religious past. How do different subject positions influence our selections from historical records? We also consider whether the spatialities of putatively 'religious' archives, whether formally or informally constituted, make a difference to the construction of historiographical knowledge. In attempting to answer these questions, the paper argues that developing an awareness of different types of positionality, vis-à-vis religious faith and practice, combined with reflexivity, vis-à-vis methodology, can enrich the interpretative reconstruction of the religious past.     

Alas! Dalai Lama,The III-Fated Prophet!

The14thDalaiLamaDaizinGyaco,overjoyedatreceivinghisNobelPrizeinNorway,cuppedhishandsinfrontwithmixedfeelingastowhomheshouldthank-BuddhaortheWest.Thathappenedinthelate1980s,atimefi11edwithsurprisingchangesintheworld:theonceformidablesuperpowepetheUSSRedisi…